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Low-carbon roadmap comes into focus — with some notable gaps

In a post-election editorial, Al Gore laid out a policy roadmap for addressing climate change. Gore’s plan looks like a bunch of other plans that have recently landed on the president-elect’s doorstep. I will now do you the favor of summarizing reams of policy expertise in five bullet points, henceforth referred to as the Grand […]

Hansen and Danny Bloom inspire vicious hate speech on web

I interviewed author Mark Bowen a year ago about James Hansen, the great climatologist, with whom Bowen wrote the book Censoring Science. The discussion turned to the intensity of reaction against Hansen from those who refuse to accept the reality of global warming. Bowen mentioned that Hansen has gotten some death threats, though he considered […]

Will Poznań be a good COP, a bad COP, or just another COP out?

International negotiators are flocking to Poznań, Poland to figure out how to extend the Kyoto protocol, whose climate targets end in 2012. I believe that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process is essentially dead — especially from a United States perspective — as I will discuss this week. Still, Poznań will be […]

Like Al Gore, but climbing skyscrapers with bare hands

In GQ this month, rogue skyscraper-climber Alain Robert — who free climbs, using no ropes or equipment — offers an account of scaling the New York Times building to hang a banner halfway up: When I was about fourteen stories up, I took the banner from under my shirt and tied it. It said GLOBAL […]

Obama notes climate and energy policy will be key to national security

President-elect Barack Obama this morning officially unveiled his national security team, and in his remarks cited the need for policy that addresses climate and energy concerns as coupled with national security. “The national security challenges we face are just as grave — and just as urgent — as our economic crisis,” said Obama. “We are […]

Busy, destructive Atlantic hurricane season blows over

The Atlantic hurricane season officially ended Sunday, marking the close of the second-most-costly season since 2005, and the fourth-busiest season overall since 1944. This year was “the only year on record in which a major hurricane existed in every month from July through November in the north Atlantic,” according to the National Climatic Data Center.

On eve of U.N. climate conference, official warns against dirty energy

On the eve of the next round of United Nations climate-treaty talks in Poznan, Poland, U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer warned the world’s nations against a “cheap and dirty” fix for the economy that could set back climate progress. “We must now focus on the opportunities for green growth that can put the global […]

Canadian government may fall, bring in greener coalition

It looks like Stéphane Dion might just make it to the Prime Minister’s office after all, at least for a little while. According to frenzied reporting out of Ottawa, opposition parties in Canada’s Parliament (who, while not forming the government, hold the majority of seats between them) are preparing to topple the Conservative government of […]

Perennial rice on the rise?

It was good to read this weekend in the Land Institute’s The Land Report that they’re now working hard to develop perennial rice varieties (in addition to their well-known perennial prairie polyculture experiment, which could transform large parts of the American plains back into a wildscape that produces lots of food). Because agriculture is technically […]

Green stuff from the L.A. auto show

We didn’t do much coverage of the L.A. Auto Show, because we don’t have the resources WE CONDEMN THE DECADENT LEMMING CARBURBAN FANTASIA! But I just read a bunch of stuff about it over on CNet’s CarTech blog, and some of it was quite cool. Probably the biggest news — something I may devote a […]